Animation

GIVING LIFE TO ILLUSION

The Animation major in KCAI’s Department of Converging Media provides students with the quality education, technical expertise and career skills necessary to realize their artistic visions and to succeed upon graduation. Animation students receive intensive instruction in classical, experimental and computer animation, but one solution is never emphasized over another. Instead, our approach is based on creative exploration and self-direction supported by faculty advisors, mentorships and guided research.

The Animation major features technologically integrated classrooms and studios. The Department of Converging Media also houses Filmmaking, Interactive Arts and Photography, Animation students work in environments and curriculum designed to facilitate creativity and cross disciplinary approaches to image-making. Students are encouraged to take electives in the other three majors to develop their understanding of how Animation relates to each.

The sequential classes emphasize the creative process by combining aspects of animation principles, concept modeling, production methods, history, theory and technique into each project.

Courses within the major have planned synergies that will develop over three years the essential skills necessary for students to identify and solve problems in physical, virtual, cognitive and cultural contexts.

“One of the biggest bonuses to
our animation department is
the wide range of projects that
are possible and encouraged...”

Elizabeth Davis
Animation, 2016

Full-time Faculty

Tom Lewis

Associate Professor & Chair

Tom Lewis is Chair of the Department of Converging Media including Photography, Filmmaking, Animation and Interactive Arts. He taught photography and new media at KCAI in 2001 through 2003 and joined the Foundation faculty in 2005, becoming Director of the School of the Foundation Year in 2012-2013 before moving to the Chairs position in the Department of Converging Media in 2013. He joined the KCAI faculty after having taught at the University of Washington School of Art, Seattle. While there, he also served as an assistant to Rod Slemmons at Crux Photographic Restoration and he assisted Michael Van Horn, curator for “After Art – Rethinking 150 Years of Photography,” at the Joseph and Elaine Monson Collection. He was co-founder and manager of CORE 317, an alternative space in Denver, and completed an internship at the International Center of Photography in New York. Lewis studied at KCAI on a Presidential Merit Scholarship and went on to earn a B.F.A. degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an M.F.A. degree from the University of Washington, where he held the Jane and David Davis Fellowship and Parnasuss Endowment. Tom is interested in the intersection of early lens based drawing and the materiality of photography. He works in both photography and large-scale graphite drawings. His work has been exhibited at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, among others and is represented in a number of private collections.

John Baker

Assistant Professor

John Baker joined KCAI in 2010 and teaches interactive arts and animation. Previously, he was an animator with MK12, a Kansas City-based motion graphics firm, where he was responsible for generating concepts for clients from storyboards to final animation. He also worked as editor and data manager on national and international film and video productions. Baker was responsible for shooting footage, including short films, and he handled filming and processing green-screen footage, rotoscope work and various visual effects. Before that he was an animator with Video Post Productions in Kansas City, where he worked in 2-D and 3-D animation for national and international clients. He has worked on numerous production projects for many well-known national brands.

Christiane Cegavske

Assistant Professor

Christiane Cegavske is best known for her feature-length animated film, “Blood Tea and Red String,” completed in 2005. She is currently working on her second animated feature film, “Seed in the Sand.” In addition to being an independent filmmaker, painter, poet and doll maker, she has been a lead animator and sculptor working on projects for The Oxygen Network, VH1, and the Disney Channel, among others. She also created animated dream sequences for Asia Argento’s “The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things” and a music video for Mark Growden’s song “Coyote.”

Doug Hudson

Adjunct Faculty

John Berry

Lecturer

John Berry is an Animator, Illustrator and Graphic Designer, currently living and working in Kansas City, MO. He received a B.F.A. in animation in 2012 from the Kansas City Art Institute. Since graduation, he has worked as an animator, concept artist, and currently a graphic designer. He has also been a teacher in KCAI’s Continuing Education department as an animation instructor since 2014. In the classroom, he provides his students with a fundamental understanding of the animation process and then encourages them to experiment and explore the medium independently. He believes that it is important for students to maintain their individuality while developing a successful studio practice of their own.

Eva Louise Hall

Lecturer

Eva Louise Hall has been teaching with the Kansas City Art Institute since 2014. She is an animator and performance artist, producing multi-media animation installation, puppetry and projection work both locally and internationally for theater and film.

Kenneth Long

Lecturer

Classes

Once you declare your major, animation students take the following core courses as they progress from sophomore to senior year. For additional electives and liberal arts courses, download the complete Course Catalog